Bulldogs' special teams a surprisingly mixed bag this year

Reporter

Blunders on special teams often decide between the winner and the loser.

Georgia has already committed a season’s worth of stumbles and counts itself fortunate that those mistakes have not cost the Bulldogs dearly during their current five-game winning streak.

“We’re very lucky,” Georgia kick returner Brandon Boykin said. “That’s a tribute to the team we have. We’re a really, really good team. But we can’t allow little stuff like this to continue to nag us because eventually we’re not going to continue to be as lucky as we have been. We’re working hard to fix all those things and I think we’re doing a good job of it.”

Special teams has been a strength for the Bulldogs in recent years. But this year the team has mixed good with bad in almost equal proportions.

Against Vanderbilt, Georgia blocked a punt early in the game. But it allowed a blocked punt late and Drew Butler might have not only saved the game, but the season, with a tackle.

“I wish I didn’t have to,” Butler said. “I really don’t know how it happened, but I guess it was a pretty opportune time to me to show every bit of athleticism that I have. I’m definitely glad that I was able to get a hand on that guy and bring him down to the ground. Luckily for us, it didn’t cost us the game and hopefully it won’t happen in the future.”

Georgia’s special-teams mistakes have often come at game-changing moments. The Bulldogs allowed a 76-yard touchdown run on a fake punt by a defensive end in a 45-42 loss to South Carolina.

It also gave up a touchdown off of a reverse on a punt return in a 27-13 win at Ole Miss and a kickoff return for a touchdown in a 33-28 win against Vanderbilt.

“Special teams is all about consistency,” Butler said. “I think the difference this year is we’ve had a lot of success in the past and teams know that. Teams prepare each week and they know they have to bring their ‘A’ game in that phase against us. Teams have done a pretty good job at that. But we have a lot of talent and we have to continue to prepare week by week to outperform our opponents. We know teams are practicing at a very high level, so we have to prepare like that, too.”

In addition, Georgia kicker Blair Walsh has missed eight field goals this season. He had missed 13 in his previous three seasons with the Bulldogs.

“We looked at our scheme again, we looked at our personnel again,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said about the bye-week preparations. “We didn’t try to be too crazy about it, but we know we have to get better. I think a lot of it has to do with challenging those units to do exactly what the coaches tell them to do. That’s been at least 50 percent of the issue.”

Georgia’s punting is a prime example of the Bulldogs’ mix of positives and negatives. Butler leads the Southeastern Conference in punting with a 46.1-yard average. Yet the Bulldogs are last in the conference in net punting with an average of 34.2 yards.

“It gets to our pride knowing that we want to be the best,” Boykin said. “We know that we have great special teams and we always have. It’s just a matter of us doing what we’re supposed to do on every play. There’s times that we’re great and there’s times that we’re terrible. A lot of that is a lack of concentration and not executing what you’re supposed to be doing.”

Georgia’s heavy influx of freshmen might be part of the blame. First-year collegiate players populate many of the special-teams positions and their inexperience can lead to breakdowns, especially when several are on the field at the same time.

“We have a lot of young guys on the special teams and they’re still learning,” Georgia safety Bacarri Rambo said. “They’re great athletes, but they need to spend more time studying film and getting experience. Once they start studying more film and getting that experience, we’ll have pretty good special teams even with a lot of young guys. Don’t get me wrong, they’ve been doing a great job. But all it takes is one breakdown. If you have 10 guys doing everything right and one guy messing up, that throws everybody off. They’ve got to correct the small things. If they continue to get better in practice, that will pay off in games.”